The Scientology Reformation: Preview II – NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Chapter Four

Selling of Indulgences

Callous greed grows pious very fast.

– Lillian Hellman

Four hundred and ninety-five years ago Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation with one seemingly innocent act. He posted what would be called his 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany for purposes of discussion. The 95 Theses were an enumerated list of abuses by the Vatican, carried out at the direction of the “infallible” pope. While many abuses were covered, the ones at first most focused upon were those connected with the practice of selling indulgences. The idea of buying one’s way to salvation, to Luther, was the most hideous single desecration of Christ.

And here is where our reflections on history come into play with respect to Scientology. Over the past couple of decades, we find much the same culture has taken hold in the church of Scientology (hereinafter referred to as Scientology Inc. or corporate Scientology). Organized Scientology’s extensive ethics and justice apparatuses have been corrupted toward precisely the same end. Knowing history, and the potential corrupting influence of money, founder L. Ron Hubbard expressly forbade the payment of money to absolve any wrongdoing by a Scientologist. In his Policy Letter of 1 May, 1965, entitled Staff Member Reports, he stated, “A donation or fine would not be acceptable amends.”

Yet today, Scientology Inc. officers empowered to administer ethics and justice in Scientology organizations across the world routinely do, as a matter of operating policy, accept monetary donations as acceptable amends. In fact they not only accept such donations, they demand them. There is no civil or ecclesiastical crime within Scientology Inc. that cannot be forgiven and forgotten for a price. Status among Scientologists is now measured by how much money they are able to fork over to the church. In essence, the worth of a person is gauged by his or her wealth. You can test this by attempting to sit in the first couple of rows at your next major Scientology Inc. event. If you have not paid tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars to the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) you will be out of luck. It does not matter how many books you have sold to the public, how many people you have introduced to Scientology, or how many hours you have audited. Compare this state of affairs to L. Ron Hubbard’s view about measuring the worth of a person:

A bank account never measured the worth of a man. His ability to help measured his worth and that’s all.

– The Genus of Dianetics and Scientology, 31 December 1960

In the light of Ron’s views, how could such a culture arise where the value of an individual is measured by the size of his material holdings?

It did not happen overnight. It took decades after Ron’s death to institute a culture of worship to the almighty buck. It required getting the opinion leaders in the Scientology community on board with the idea that wealth is of paramount importance. It required the steady, increasing validation and rewarding of the anti-virtue of greed.

It began in the 1980s shortly after the passing away of L. Ron Hubbard. And it started with the family that has subsequently been promoted into unofficial royalty in the Scientology community, the Feshbach brothers, Joe, Matt and Kurt. The three were infamous stock market short-sell specialists during the era when glorification of greed was hip in America. “Short-selling” is betting, via the stock market, that a company will fail, and then profiting handsomely when it does. As the Feshbachs’ fortunes, amassed during the late ’80s, became almost legendary, the post-LRH pope of Scientology, David Miscavige did two things to wed Scientology with them.

First, Miscavige directed that the Feshbachs’ success in making money for nothing, and even assisting in the downfall of American businesses, become the primary publicized “success” story for Scientology. For years, Scientology Inc.’s marketing and public-relations units tirelessly churned out advertising, press releases and publications connecting the Feshbachs’ success to their involvement in Scientology.

Second, Miscavige invested his own money with the Feshbachs – money the Feshbachs dutifully and not-so-honestly converted into hundreds of thousands of dollars for Miscavige. Miscavige cleverly influenced several high-level members of the Scientology hierarchy to do the same, so as to avoid any internal flack over his corrupt activities. The people so corrupted included the then-Inspector General of the church (Greg Wilhere, whose first duty was to stamp out any such unethical dealings), the church’s highest scriptural authority (Ray Mithoff, at the time the Inspector General for Technology, and now Senior Case Supervisor International), and international Scientology’s highest-level manager (Watchdog Committee Chairman, Marc Yager).

In order to impress and bond with his then-newly-recruited Scientologist superstar, Tom Cruise, Miscavige encouraged him to also invest with the quick-buck brothers. With the highest officers of the hierarchy and Scientology’s most bankable star all investing with the Feshbachs, many lesser names in Scientology followed suit…

171 responses to “The Scientology Reformation: Preview II – NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON”

Fascinating information on the Feshbachs. Marty, when you say “Miscavige invested his own money with the Feshbachs,” do you mean Miscavige had some money that was really his own, or do you mean money he stole from Scientologists?

I wrote this as a comment on the last post, but wanted to make sure you see it–The surveillance on your home makes sense now-they are afraid of your books!!! Your writing is scaring them and this book is going to freak freak freak DM out–I mean hell, it is scary for me to read——the pen is mightier than the sword…..

If they’re stalking Marty’s house because of the book, they’re way too late. Plus, I don’t see how they can prevent Marty from publishing it by putting him under surveillance? I think the surveillance is linked to the two PIs story. DM fears a Marty/Broeker “reunion”. Or, if it’s about the book, maybe he’s soiling his pants because he fears a secret TC/Marty meeting?

Karen Pouw actually confirmed that recently in a press statement. Something to the effect of the surveillance being for the purpose of severing ties with anyone daring to communicate with Marty. They’re freaking terrified of seeing their kingdom of lies come tumbling down.

Marty, another great story on the fraud perpetrated by the corporate church as twisted by DM.

Some irony too – I like the way you used the LRH quote in what I would deem the correct sense – “A bank account never measured the worth of a man…” In that THAT quote is used liberally by the corporate church’s fund raisers to “extract” money from parishioners, ie indulgences!

Once I was attending an IAS event at the Brand Boulevard (Glendale, CA) mission … just opened to great fanfare … I had just been graced with Drew Johnston’s pronouncement that me, myself and I, was one of the “few who would make it” if I kept my nose to the Scientology Grindstone (well, he didn’t call it that, exactly) and was feeling a little confused by his, on the one hand, suggestion that I was one of those special few who, apparently, had a fighting chance, and on the second hand, his suggestion that the ‘rest of you’ are pretty much fodder for the cannons (I always read Hubbard to say that Scientology worked for everyone) … and I was standing next to two high ranking S.O.’s, all decked out in their finery, and one of them said to the other, commenting on a recent edict from Miscavige that … “If it’s written, then it’s true!” and they both shook their heads in agreement and congratulated themselves on being able to spot “truth” when they saw it.

I was soooooooooooooo stunned to hear this utter rubbish out of the mouths of people who were supposed to be safeguarding Hubbard’s works from oral modifications (or modifications at all!), I thought that I must be wrong. So, I went and actually looked up the reference, and, sure enough, that insidious alteration was not what Hubbard had stated.

The utter perversion and suppression for the truths of Scientology and Dianetics is what the “Church” of Scientology is all about, now.

LRH had produced a special edition of “Effective Public Relations” by Cutlip and Center, in which his annotations were printed in red in the margins. Perhaps some others remember it. One of the annotations I recall was next to a paragraph extolling the virtues of using PR to boost retail sales. The annotation next to it was telling of LRH’s attitude:
“U$A – the culture of the buck,”
I think his words would be less kind about this mockery that the Co$ has become.

I can see this is going to get ugly. The amounts lost by those involved must be horrendous. And I don’t mean lost on the donations, I mean lost in the market due to faith in …….the genius of the Feshbachs! I am also curious if the Reed Slatkin debacle was part of this scheme or a separate but similar activity.

“It began in the 1980s shortly after the passing away of L. Ron Hubbard. And it started with the family that has subsequently been promoted into unofficial royalty in the Scientology community, the Feshbach brothers, Joe, Matt and Kurt.”

Boy you really nailed this square on the head. I always thought that it was rather wierd that the Feshbachs were always so muched admired for making their Money from Nothing. Especially when Ron preached the opposite of producing something valuable for exchange with the world at large. All of us DB scientologists in CW were always lead to be in awe the Feshbach bros. Yep, quite a different philosophy coming from COB versus LRH for sure.

Sinar, I heard that also. It was the talk of the Bay Area at the time when they crucified a small company in Los Gatos. I remember hearing about how “out ethics” they were and that it would not last for long!!! Very sad!

I worked as part of the family staff during the early part of this financial rise. Although I don’t know the details fully, they would do research to find corrupt companies in which to sell short. The concept of putting ethics in on Wall Street was very much disseminated and it became a justifier to seek money for nothing avenues of income, ignoring basic policies on exchange. It also was an unusual solution to the rising costs of training and auditing.

The ironic part of this is that Matt was an extremely good disseminator and got lots of people into Scientology before he got into finance. He used to to seminars locally on how to get your friends in Scientology, later his seminars emphasized making money.

Very Important Bullseye TOPIC
Indulgences.
In the variations of SPs, there is
NEGOTIABLE SP. This is a marketable commodity based on money. Does money $$$$ make you a Suppressive person or a non-suppressive person ? For Years and Years at “Int events” the flock were told how bad, evil, predatory the IRS was. The IRS was the devil incarnate. No one screamed the “Church” had sunk to depths of SPness as the IRS !
So how did the IRS flip from being a Deep SP to a good *FRIENDLY* agency ?

$$$$$$$$ Baby, $$$$$$ Show me the money !!!
501C3 Tax exemption makes a deep SP enemy Government Agency NO LONGER an SP. Overnight. Just like that !

Does Money $$$$$ make you SP or not SP ????

a LARGE BIG BIG DONATION CAN UN-SP you in a New York Minute ! Giving a bunch of loot to the coffers means you were :::ahem:::not SP after all ! 😆

What you say here, Karen is the root of all evil. Money. And it seems to me that the true “big beings” would be able to understand that money is coupled with greed and can lead a person to ruin. LRH was truly a “big being” in that he recognized how money can corrupt. He also talked about “justifying”, and how that can cause a person to overlook corruption and lies…which also causes ruin in the end. The IRS was bad until they did what DM wanted and then they were “absolved” by DM. Corruption on both sides of the coin: meaning the IRS and DM are both corrupt.

Also, Secrets. Whenever I see a reward going out to some new important IAS shill, I always wonder why their full statistics, including Hat details, ethics events, production summaries, aren’t right up on the big golden screen as well. Feschbachs were *pitched* in Scientology’ese, but not actually backed up with paper and ink on the walls, so to speak, in most cases. Well, in some cases, it seems things went well, but for so few at a loss of many, imho. Not greatest-good-for-the-greatest-NUMBER-of-dynamics players, after all .. because, there was so much secrecy being sold.

“Miscavige invested his own money with the Feshbachs – money the Feshbachs dutifully and not-so-honestly converted into hundreds of thousands of dollars for Miscavige. Miscavige cleverly influenced several high-level members of the Scientology hierarchy to do the same, so as to avoid any internal flack over his corrupt activities. The people so corrupted included the then-Inspector General of the church (Greg Wilhere, whose first duty was to stamp out any such unethical dealings), the church’s highest scriptural authority (Ray Mithoff, at the time the Inspector General for Technology, and now Senior Case Supervisor International), and international Scientology’s highest-level manager (Watchdog Committee Chairman, Marc Yager).”

Our heroes.
The Men In Blue who were so ethical and dedicated, and who saved Scientology from the forces of evil.
To paraphrase the playwright in the film Lives of Others: “To think, our religion was led by men like this.”
I almost threw up on my computer when I read this.
We’ve probably all known that there had to be out-ethics at the top in order for the scene to reach the current state of affairs in organized Scientology, but now we are getting some specifics.
As hard as it is to face the fact of having been fooled and duped by fools and dupes, it is what it is.
The truth does indeed set one free.

Marty, you just keep dragging the dead bodies out from under the bed, out of the closet, diggin’ ’em up from the backyard.
No wonder David Miscavige is so worried about you.

Then there is what really upsets him:
You got big brass ones. They clang when you walk.
Poor Davey’s just tinkle when he walks.

Marty,
Ooh boy, is this is ever a very accurate report of what has been going on in the COCS (Church of Corporate Scientology) and been developing for years. This “selling of indulgences” is a disease which has gradually spread to the point where it has become a full blown epidemic. “Ethics” officers in the COCS also seize on every opportunity to CREATE feelings guilt in people for very minor errors (or even for beneficial acts!) which can then be twisted and/or blown out of proportion and used by COCS “authorities” as emotional blackmail to suck as much wealth as they can out of parishoners. (My postulate is that they will someday be recognized as the dirty COCS suckers that they are.)
…..sorry, I couldn’t resist that one. Feel free to delete that.
But I just heard an even more outrageous statement on this subject from someone still “connected”: this person said that the COCS management has recently “discovered” that this practice has been going on, is trying to stop it, and, get this, is blaming YOU for it by saying that you wrote up a program for doing this!!!!
I kid you not. When I mentioned that as far as I know Marty Rathbun has not been on post in the COSC for years, this person figure-figured that, well then, somebody must have “found” your old program and started implementing it. …Like I say, “I kid you not”. I think we’d better petition the FDA to put a warning label on Koolaid – “WARNING – CAN CAUSE HALLUCINATIONS.”

Ah, yes, the Feshback Bros., Manny, Moe and Jack. Two paid a cool one million dollars each to receive the Super Power pilot rundowns at Gold. Kurt, I think, was not as involved with their money making scams but probably made enough and went off skiing or something.

If their lawyers or Eliot Abelson needs fodder for their statements about Marty’s book, of if Karin “Pinocchio” Pouw needs help drafting her next letter, they might want to draw on the statement Lance Armstrong’s attorney just issued after a report was released naming 26 former teammates and others who testified that Armstrong was a chronic doper while winning his 7 Tour de France titles. The attorney’s statement sounds all too familiar to Scn Inc. watchers but at least it uses some new terminology besides “bitter apostates”:

We in RTC wish to make it clear that the Church of Scientology does not sell indulgences. Rather, the fact of the matter is that we do not punish upstats who choose to generously donate large sums of money to the IAS.

For example, a certain former OT, a woman, went to the Ethics Officer to handle her volatile marriage following an episode in which her husband beat her senseless. When confronted with the KR by the MAA, the man donated $150,000 as proof of his Ethics change.

We in RTC certainly would not punish a $150,000 donation, especially considering the fact that she later became a SP who committed the crime of practicing Scientology outside of the Church.

We in RTC were vindicated by taking the $150,000 and ignoring her KR about her upstat OT husband beating her. Indeed, this generous donation was solid and measurable proof in the MEST universe of an Ethics change on the husband’s part. We in RTC used our power of forgiveness and we forgave him.

Looked at in terms of ethics, a person with enough free Theta and wherewithal to donate money to IAS, Super Power, Ideal Orgs, Project Mouse Table, and the Library Project is incapable of committing a crime.

The point we in RTC wish to hammer home is this: The Church of Scientology does not sell indulgences. Rather we see donations as proof of an ethics change that we can graph on a chart. Said another way, as donations increase, the Church itself becomes more ethical and that is exactly what the Church is: We are the Most Ethical Group on the Planet.

And the only way we in RTC have maintained this status is by regging, regging. and more regging for cash donations. If you curse regging and cash donations then you are cursing Ethics itself and are an SP!

OMG I am ROFLAO!
Seriously though, what a great encapsulation of what occurs. This is actually so spot on and so true… and, yes, I can attest that this is exactly what occurs!
“especially considering the fact that she later became a SP who committed the crime of practicing Scientology outside of the Church” – Brilliant!

He beat her? Mutual out ruds with David. No wonder he got off with a donation. Seriously, who the hell in the Church has the right to punish someone member of the Church for domestic abuse considering what goes on at the Int Base? The woman should have called the police and filed a domestic abuse charge. THE 150,000.00 SHOULD HAVE GONE TO HIS WIFE AS AMENDS! WHY THE HELL IS HE GIVING IT TO THE CHURCH, THEY DIDN’T TAKE THE ASS WHIPPING? Of all the warped entitlement!

Why hasn’t he divorced if he is no longer with his wife? Maybe she doesn’t know she is worth 25 million? Maybe he does not want to bring his financials into a law office. I think it is an outpoint that he is not divorced, it has got to be about the money. He does not seem to have a problem throwing someone he has no more use for under the bus.

Or maybe she’s totally aware of how much “she” is worth, by virtue of her marraige. Love to see that divorce go public.

Might have some bearing on why Debbie is cruising around the Caribbean these days. If miscavige had pursued the lawsuit againt her, she might have been able to sue him and his own ill-gotten greenbacks. I can’t imagine any jury not taking it to the ultimate limit if that little prick ever has to defend his sadism in open court.

Holy poopsky Oracle! You caught me offguard when you said:
” I think it is an outpoint that he is not divorced, it has got to be about the money.”
All I can say is that when it comes to the Miscarriage, WHAT IS NOT AN OUTPOINT?!!!!!!
That is all that exists; HIS BEINGNESS IS AN OUTPOINT; WHAT HE DOES IS AN OUTPOINT; AND ALL HE HAS LEFT ARE OUTPOINTS!

This is Vicki K commenting…The “selling of indulgences” and recognition of those who donated large sums as opposed to those who innovated and worked to create the product were the sparks that ignited my disconnection from Corporate Scientology. Vic had worked his guts out managing all aspects of CATS, and our family sacrificed so much to support his efforts, working alongside him almost daily. When a public (who quite frankly created many more problems than he solved) was recognized at an international event as “Supremus Maximus” for his work with CATS, I lost it. We have been “off lines” since and have been much happier for the disconnection.

It is quite shocking to me actually, that people I cared for have bought into this drivel: that the worth of a person is measured by how much money they can give to the corporation (oops, I meant Church). Wake up! What Marty describes in Chapter 4 is truth and illustrates the degradation of LRH and his tenets.

Thanks Vicki – that policy mentality is exactly what I am referring to. The biggest cummulative crime in the Miscavige regime is the squandering of one of the most impressive arrays of human resources and talents ever assembled. That most definitely includes your husband.

Citizens for an Alternative Tax System. In existence for about 9 years, purpose was to replace the federal income tax with a fair and equitable sales tax (which took a lot of work to figure out!). Actually had a bill drafted and in Congress but it was never able to get out of committee. Vicki

I’ll tell you what really pissed me off about CATS. As soon as the “church” got tax exemption they dropped that like a hot potato and suddenly the IRS was your “friend”. I was really taken aback when a staff member told me several years ago that OSA now had the task of making sure all Scientologists were compliant with their income taxes. I didn’t advocate tax fraud, just that my finances were none of their goddamned business (kind of like I told the last nosy IAS reg I spoke to).

I was in the SO at Int level around the CATS fiasco, and recall staff briefings that there would have to be concessions made to the IRS about such programs, or at least the Church would have to hand it off to staff/public not associated with the Corporation. Not an easy thing to do when there is a lot of beheading going on among the cannibal cabal that was Int management, being decimated and diced, bit by bit ..

As I recall there was a Glen Walquist from Sacramento who was also involved in helping with the CATS initiative. He worked his heart out.
I believe he was partners with a couple fellows; a Bob Graves and Dennis McKenna who are still heavy drinkers at the Kool aide stand last time I heard.

FYI to the group: I just picked up a copy of the new book on amazon, for those of you who were asking about availability. For some reason it didn’t come up when I searched “Mark Rathbun,” but when I searched with the title it did.

Very interesting article. As I am new here, a quick introduction: I won’t out my real name, because my parents are very CO$ oriented.

I am a sea org child, practically since birth. My parents were long time sea org members (over 2 decades). My mom is very highly trained on both sides: She has had stints of 2 years, where she was studying 12 hour days. She was on the first team, to be trained through the Golden Age Of Tech.

The conditions of living, for sea org members was below average. The tone of communication, (aggressiveness) was absurd. The amount of arbitary and strange orders were incredible.

I was in the SO for 6 month (16 years old) and said Thats it! 20 hour days with 8 hours of sleep. Took me a year, to be able to leave. People were in dismay because, as I sea child, you should automatically fit like hand in glove in the SO.

To be honest, sometimes I don’t understand people that leave after 15 years and claim they escaped or something? I mean why not find your balls? Thats why I respect Marty and Mike, they don’t make excuses and whine.
I left as a child, with no money, no connections, no eduction, no real social skills outside of sea org upbrining. This is 14 years ago and I could already anticipate what the CO$ would become.I realized it then and still holds true today: The CO$ will not put food on your table or do anything for you. Like my dad, that became very ill in the SO and stayed, at my place. People there don’t care, about a fallen member. After more then 20 years hard work.

The reason I am collecting information, is to attempt to avoid my parents of becoming prey to being crushed regged. I tried to explain all these things to my mother, what I found on this blog. Its hard to reach her. Besides being slapped with a freeloader over $250.000. Don’t know the status of this or if she got a reduction and paid it? My mother and her husband,(new) are working very hard to make it, in this crisis. They take 1 week of a year. I will be damned if, the CO$ blackmail her for IAS donations. Donations that pay COBs $40000 cigar holder og his tanning bed.

On top of it, pays for COBs caribbean scuba diving and his rock climbing. Can you believe he has time for scuba diving and rock climbing? as a SO member. He listed this as, his hobbies in a interview with vanity Fair.

But I know, how easy it, is to use guilt, ethics and certain tactics on scientologists. For the purpose of getting in donations. For me it would be easy as eating apple pie, to deal with someone trying to crush regge, because, I don’t have anything at stake and it does not mean alot to me. The issue is if the buy, that your eternal freedom, is at stake, its very hard to say no. Thats my point, people trying to go free, but so trapped in many senses.

Now I have been looking at the Feshbach brothers. Because I was myself investigating the connection between Feshbach-DM and the heavy IAS donation push. I did’t even know anything about the Feshbachs, but I precieved a connection between them, COB and the HEAVY IAS PUSH.

Could COB have been, gambling on the stock marked (with donations) when the Feshbachs were crushed in 2007 and COB poteniallly lost alot of money? Hence the heavy IAS push?

Here is a interesting part of the article:

“During the 1980s, Feshbach and his two brothers, Kurt and Joe, built up a $1 billion Feshbach Brothers investment fund that specialized in short selling — or betting on stock declines — winning him praise and vilification on Wall Street.

Feshbach Brothers generated rich returns over 30 percent from 1982 to 1990, but later suffered a reversal of fortunes and liquidated in 1992.

In 2001, Matt Feshbach founded MLF Investments with outside investors to focus mostly on long investing in a handful of small-capitalization stocks. The firm prospered for five years, but suffered a reversal of fortunes in 2007.

The firm last week distributed holdings in Ambassadors International AMIE.O, according to a regulatory filing. The cruise ship operator’s stock has declined from about $47 per share in January 2007, to trade at $4.60 on Thursday”

Hi there, BiSO. Glad you survived. It’s tough playing second fiddle to the church to your own parents – I know the feeling.

You are so right about people there not caring about a fallen member. I was trying to think of a comparable group that acts like the SO. I was thinking it acts like the Klingons in Star Trek, only without the honor… then that made me think of the only real group that acts like the SO, especially these days: Wall Street. Wall Streeters have no soul and don’t give a shit about anyone, and when one of them falls, others pounce to take their stuff, like a shark feeding scrum.

Wow! So much truth being shot from canons every moment here! It is so true that the quote from LRH that a bank account doesn’t measure the worth of a man has been reversed to black dianetics of sorts by the IAS and Corporate Scn. I witnessed it in other people’s Liability formulas I signed at Flag and even in my own ethics dealings. I had to do conditions and got a big check in, so I donated a ton (for me) to the IAS, and Poof! My ethics condition disappeared so fast it was unreal. And I”ve seen it with countless others. The most funny one was a guy had been to a strip club and some stipper gave him a lap dance. He was doing lower conditions and he bought his way out of it by buying his wife 6 intensives of auditing. I went home and told my then husband, “I need some auditing, can you please go to a strip club!”

And the IAS turns and twists the LRH quote also by telling you that you shoudln’t have 401K, savings, retirement accounts because “Ron says that a bank account never measured anyone’s worth; it is how much he helps that proves his worth…” (my paraphrase of the quote). The IAS uses that reference and quote to tell people to dessimate any savings or retirement money that they have set aside for their future living, because giving it to the IAS will “help” the planet. What a perversion and black turning of the intent of LRH’s original quote. I wish he’d come here and kick their butts.

Marty, you are really getting out a good volume of whistle-blowing, with high quality and viability of whistle-blowing. More and more people are hearing the whistle and turning around and looking directly at correct target Miscavige. I just ordered your book here in the states with no problem and look forward to it.

I will be getting this book btw. Looking very much foward. Another thing I am amazed by the Ideal org, (Big Beings) ponzi scheme: Its got to be one of the boldest moves in history. So intelligently devised to fit the psychological profile of, good hearted Scientologists. That believe in the whole Big Beings and clear the world sales pitch.

Really CO$ or COB is becoming real estate rich in many countries this way. Rich is the wrong word, its wealthy.

They invite a group of Scientologists to a special briefing. Give the whole Big Being spill and people buy it, hook, line and sinker.

The Scientologist take huge loans, and the building is purchased in the name of CO$. While the scientologist have to pay monthly off on their loan. So even regardless of income, by purchasing real estate (paid by others) DM is getting richer and richer.

I mean if he sells or rents the properties, he would make absurd amounts of money.

So the money, will hardly ever be an issue for him. Realistically I believe he is way richer the TC.

HE is not rich. The Church is rich. Any money DM has was embezzeld or outright stolen from the church and it’s parishioners. Why would you consider that ANY of it was his in the first place? After all, isn’t he a Sea Org “volunteer” too?

Indulgences are not the only thing being sold these days. For example, here is the body of an email I just received:

“Hello Everyone,
“I would like to invite you to an important event, which will be held at The Garden Pavilion, on the grounds of the beautiful and historic landmark French chateau, Celebrity Centre International, this coming Saturday, 13 October, 2012. The poster, with all the details, is attached. It will be presented by Philanthropy for the Arts, Inc., which is a National Arts Charity, and by Youth for Human Rights. The theme is powerful and relevant: Artists for a Humane World. There will be world class performers, from around the world, performing in various artistic media, and you will be rubbing elbows with many consuls and representatives from foreign countries. It will be an elegant awards event and concert, and will be an excellent opportunity for you to meet new people and make new connections, and of course, it will also an event to which you may bring old friends.
“The event is free, although tax-exempt donations to the presenting charities will be welcome.
“I would be pleased to see you and your friends there.
“RSVP by calling the number on the poster. This concert is just a prelude to a high-profile artistic series which will be produced at Celebrity Centre, which you might find to be of interest, as well.
“Please forward this message and the attached flyer to your friends, your social media groups, forums, colleagues and associates. Help me spread the word.
“I look forward to seeing you there.
“Sincerely with much affection,
“Ian Brooks”

And, it was accompanied by a nice glossy flyer showing the photographs and touting the accomplishments of:

“…and you will be rubbing elbows with many consuls and representatives from foreign countries.”

Laughter! For real? I watched the movie Rock of Ages last night. Tom Cruise clearly does not have any rock star friends. It was like watching Bruce Jenner lost on second avenue in New York! The film is about about a girl from Oklahoma arriving to Hollywood. They showed landmark signs throughout the film and somehow, someway, the Celebrity Center building kept popping up! I mean, right along with the Hollywood sign! So, while Tom was making an ass out of himself, he managed to plug Celebrity Center!

And, not to wear out my welcome, but, BTW, the following book, by the great writer William Manchester, puts a lot in context about “indulgences” and how they were solicited by the Catholic Church in medieval times. While not written with even the slightest intention of commenting on anything Scientological, it explains volumes about Pope Miscavige.

And, besides, William Manchester is, next to Shakespeare, one of the most melifluously beautiful writers to come along in a long time.

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester (Jun 1, 1993)
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Welcome to the group, “Born in SO”. I have to validate you for your courage, bravery and yes, balls, to leave as a young kid with no money, no connections, no training. And now you’re trying to help your parents. Very commendable! I like and agree with your postings too.

October 31 is generally celebrated as Reformation Day by most Protestant Christians because on that day in the year 1517 Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg

Marty,
Awesome data and it all really starts to line up.
With starting your blog you have thrown a rock into the pond and the ripples spread further and further and now with your books the pond has merged with the ocean and the ripples reach everywhere.
Keep following the money!
THANK YOU! 🙂
Greta

Thanks alot 🙂 Beside being born in the SO, I wasn’t that sold on the bridge, just to be honest. So in that perspective, how on earth could I do, a sea org schedule for life? + it helped that some guys came from INT managenment and was blasting people left, right and center.

When you grow up in a rundown building and look outside at wogs and there posh housing. I was like, thats how I want to live.

True story: first (wog ;)) job I got working, was cutting grass,branches, changing light bulbs ect. in a huge apartment complex. A worker told me, I was working to quick and hard 😉

Bear in my I just got off 1 year (leaving) on decks 12 hours a day. Where they attempted to break me, keeping me totally isolated and working with the RPF. I will never forgive CO$ for that. Example I had no basic school exams and a RTC rep, requested a CSW of me to go for the basic exams. Which is required by law,as far as I know.

These kind of werid orders, totally turned me off on the entire subject. I have not had anything to do with it the last 14 years.

Although there were lots of cool/great (rank and flie) people there as well.

Oh yeah, I got confirmed from another SO child (childhood friend), that lives out in a exotic country today, with his grilfriend. She worked uplines and he told me that DM has a violent nature. So this is from children, whose parents joined in the 80ies.

Had a win I thought I’d share. A bit of story, but I promise it’s relevant.

I’m in health care. I was seeing a patient today for a Pap smear who was having a good bit of symptoms. After obtaining the specimen, I confirmed she had trichomoniasis which is an STD. When I told her the results, she began to cry. She had a suspicion that her husband had been having an affair, and considering that she had not been with anyone else and hadn’t previously had any problems, she could only really have gotten it from him. She was very upset and was very keyed in. She began to tell me all of these things, and I kept my TR’s in and listened.When she was done, I gave her an appropriate acknowledgement- Which consisted of only “I understand.”

Interestingly, I saw a complete shift in her universe- I watched her as-is the problem! I can’t describe the change in her face, and how she came up tone! She is without a doubt the happiest patient with an STD I’ve ever had!

I’m not an auditor, but I have often heard stories of how who auditors watch their PC’s undergo a spiritual metamorphosis as they as is something. I think I just experienced it for myself on a different flow. That’s when I realized, that auditing is a comm cycle.

Scientology is the most practical thing that one can do to make the world around them better. It can be used by anyone, in any line of work. The use of basic Scientology principles would without a doubt make the world a better place. All it takes is the experience of how practical and effective it is.

This patient came back later today, and thanked me again for helping her so much! I wasn’t sure what I did? After all, I told her she had an STD, and she had realized that her husband had been cheating on her. Normally, patient’s are not coming back the same day to thank me for helping them so much! She was very visibly different, with a big smile on her face! All from just being duplicated. Not by a robotic RTC TR ack, but just one human being really being there in a moment with a person, and just caring enough to understand.

It just makes me think- how can something as good as Scientology become what it has become? Shakedowns, extortion, indulgences, Ideal Orgs, PI, forced abortions, RPF, human trafficking, squirrel auditing, etc. How could anyone knowingly be involved in those things, and at the same time, call themselves a Scientologist? It is truly suppressive how someone can make you want to reach to better yourself and the world around you, and covertly make you a slave in the process. While at the same time, padding their own pockets with the donations that were given to help other beings have the opportunity to experience what my patient did today. It is just evil.

I so very grateful for the Indy movement. I am glad to have a group that understands wishes to keep Scientology working by actually practicing it, and showing the world that Scientology is not what is currently being practiced in the current corporate “church.”

That is beautiful! Very well done to you for your compassion and duplication of this patient’s situation and, most of all, for your acknowlegement.

Some years ago I was on a long flight, sitting next to an undercover air marshal. He asked me about my Clear bracelet and I explained Scientology to him in a few sentences. Within another minute he was telling me his ruin in life and his hopes for the future. About half an hour later he suddenly seemed to arrive in present time and said to me “Who are you anyway? I’ve never told anyone this stuff.” I gently explained that I was trained in communication, particularly the listening part.

All I had done was listen, duplicate and acknowledge him. We all use the tech daily and it’s as natural as breathing, but we forget how magical it truly is for someone to be heard and understood!

Thank you very much for the acknowledgement, and for sharing your story!

Communication is the essence of life. I cognited early on, that I create my own life experience, by my willingness to or not to give or receive communication!

I am a doctor, and I have always found that the BEST medicine, is always ARC. Feeling duplicated. Feeling understood. I have a unique advantage, because behind a closed door, patients are not afraid to communicate to me, as they know that I am hear to help them, not pass judgement on them, and they know that whatever they tell me is confidential. It is simply amazing to me the effects that you can have on one spiritually, with good TR’s and acknowledgements.

Personally, I find it very ironic that many of my friends that are OT 8 and have a lot of training, simply won’t communicate with me anymore, simply because I have a different viewpoint about the church. It’s sad and kind of ironic that highly trained Scientologist that have given so much of their time and money for the cause, simply lose the very essence of what Scientology is about (simple ARC), primarily out of fear of loss of eternity, family, friends, or being penalized for maintaining such lines.

I love your win. It is awesome. You HAVE a clue, for sure. The magic of good communication can do so much. To have someone really hear you, from your viewpoint and generously duplicate exactly what you said, intended, were hoping for, felt, saw, and knew is a miracle. That ability frees others in or out of session. I am very happy for you and your little lady who I am sure will regain her health soon! VGI’s with an STD is quite the story! Well done to YOU!

Thank you very much for your comment. I often times imagine how different the world would be, if the comm formula was taught in school, with an understanding of ARC and KRC? Isn’t it amazing how much affinity people have for you after just simply feeling duplicated?

When the Freewinds had its very first Mainden Voyage and sailed on June 6, 1988, I was the mission in-charge of the whole Maiden Voyage etc. At the time the Feschbecks were under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission for crashing out so many businesses in America. In fact, the investigation triggered questions about short selling what it does to companies. As a result the Feschbecks made it on the cover of Time Magazine and not in a good light. I had read the articlein Time on the Freewinds and I found out that Joe and Matt were coming. When they arrived I sent them to Ethics because they were under investigation by the government. Ray Mithoff (IG Tech at the time) got pissed at me and fished them out of ethics and put them back onto the lines and onto OT VIII.

What lesson did I and the Dir I&R Freewinds learn? Money is the free pass out of ethics. I was told “Upstats have ethics protection.” I asked how these people had ethics protection when they were in ethics for crashing companies and peoples livelyhood in order to get rich? I was told “They practically paid for the ship.”

Only in the contraversial “Church” of Radical Taliban Scientology does money give you a get out of jail card. It’s almost, or perhaps the same, as “protection money” that is paid to organized crime.

I too, remember for years how the Feshbachs used to tout how ethical they were by:

1) Increasing the net worth of their investors (to which, I used to think, where is the production and exchange of short selling???)

2) Putting in ethics on out-ethics businesses that would false report. The fact that they made millions of dollars as a result of betting a public corporations imminent demise seem to be just incidental to the whole thing. In other words, they saw themselves as a sort of policing organization, kind of like a WDC of Wall Street. This is a bit like the KKK doing border patrol while claiming they are protecting the country.

While short selling is not illegal, I always thought of it as unethical as it is profiting at the expense and misfortune of others. There is no production of a Valuable Final Product and is therefore a criminal level of exchange. In addition, LRH very explicitly writes against Wall Street speculation as bad for the economy in the HCO PL “Financial Irregularities”. The fact that the Feshbachs sort of made “money out of nothing” by “putting in ethics”, sort of made the whole thing smell like one giant justification to me. Whatever gets you through the night…

FWIW, there are organizations in the US like the SEC who are supposed to police public corporations without profiting from it, and there are laws against “false reporting” as the Feshbachs used to call it.

Enjoy your blog. Im not a scientologist, but I think your work here is very important. My question is, do Indys practice disconnection, or do independants declare people SP’s? That seems to be the problem with those so called church.

Hello.
Do Independent Scientologists practive disconnection?
This is a good question.
There is a very vital technical fact regarding disconnection.
For better understanding of the technical concept you may read “How David Miscavige changed LRH Policy regarding ‘disconnection'” by Jim Logan. Find it here: http://www.scientology-cult.com/3d-engram.html

First thing you need to understand is, that disconnection can be used as technical means to help the individual or, as practiced in the church, for political reasons.

The short answer to your question about disconnection is that it is only to be practiced as the very last resort and only if a person who is being suppressed by someone has been unable to HANDLE, i.e., bring peace to the suppressive situation. There are many methods described in Scientology to help people HANDLE suppressive situations and people.
But even as a last resort, disconnection would only be practiced as a result of a self-determined decision by the person who is doing the disconnecting. This means that it would only be done if the person originated that they wanted to do it – not as a result of threats of consequences from another person. Handling the situation is always preferred and is the first method recommended …..ESPECIALLY when it involves families.
This is what L. Ron Hubbard recommends.
What the “church” of Scientology practices is another matter.
If I left out anything important, somebody chime in.

Marty, your blog site and books are the best things that have happened to Scientology in the last twenty years.

Regarding the purchase of status in the current “church,” the best treatment and best seats given to those who have contributed the most money, current Kool Aid drinkers have nothing but agreement with this. They’ve been programmed to believe they’re money is “clearing the planet.”

We here in Global Capitalism HQ (the alias for the hedge fund where I work) can say with authority that the practice of selling stocks short is not the problem. It’s quite beneficial in volatile markets, since it provides liquidity and price stability on rapid moves to the downside as short sellers step in and cover their positions — without short sellers buying stocks, downward moves would actually be much more pronounced and investors on the long side would lose more money if there weren’t a counterparty to their efforts to dump a troubled stock. There are abundant theoretical arguments by economists with all sorts of data justifying this.

A truism in my business is that the only people who complain about short sellers are crooked company management teams. In fact, most smart professionals will sell any stock the moment that management spends time complaining about short sellers.

While the mechanism of short selling is neither ethical nor unethical (ethical in the normal human sense, not the meaning attached by Scientology), there are indeed unethical short sellers. While I do not have definitive knowledge of any enforcement actions brought against the Feshbach brothers, they did have a reputation of being extremely aggressive in trying to drive moves in the stocks where they were short.

The reason for their success is that they were focused on short selling in a time when few are; they existed before hedge funds became all the big rage in the late 1990s; hedge funds often promise their investors that they will put a certain percentage of their money on short positions (sometimes 10%, sometimes up to 25%; this is often a bigger shadow than it sounds through the use of options rather than actual short positions in stocks). So now everybody’s doing it, which means being successful shorting stocks is MUCH harder.

The Spy Magazine story relates that the Feshbachs got their heads handed to them when they tried to short large capitalization stocks (i.e., big companies like Wells Fargo) “on the fundamentals” rather than on news of criminal behavior. Shorting on the fundamentals is a rookie mistake that has a way of quickly correcting itself by cutting short the careers of anybody who does it more than once. The fact that the Feshbachs didn’t understand this as they were looking to move out of the niche that they dominated shows that they really weren’t very sophisticated even by the standards of the day; they would be bugs on the windshield in the market today.

“they did have a reputation of being extremely aggressive in trying to drive moves in the stocks where they were short.”

You know damn well this is true in the opposite direction as well when a hedge fund or mutual funds or banks or private investors with enough money in small cap stocks are long at a low price hoping to sell dearly at a higher price. They can be “aggressive” (meaning buying more stock to drive the stock price higher, or selling short to drive the price down, all to manipulate the stock price). And it all depends on average price paid. And if one has enough bucks one or others can move small cap prices to any price they want. And of course one of the indicators is volume of individual stock bought or sold on a given day or week or weeks to show selling or buying activity.

But enter in high frequency trading and that is another story.

But the point of the article is that DM got people involved in the stock market to make money, whether short or long, and LRH said solve money problems with delivering scientology and not other things such as the stock market or fund raising. But evidentially there is no money problem with SO reserves, except for maybe DM wasting it in the stock market and corrupting other int management.

Yes, you’re right — it is eminently possible to manipulate the market in both directions, long and short. In my experience, it’s a lot easier to knock a small thinly traded stock down than it is to pump it up. I’m talking about Nasdaq stocks with active market makers rather than about penny stocks, by the way, where “normal” market behaviors don’t apply due to the lack of liquidity. So I think it’s not symmetric — back in the day, it was easier for shorts to manipulate the market on small cap (versus micro-cap) stocks than it was for those on the long side.

No disagreement on the larger issue in Marty’s article, which you pointed out — Miscavige has no business in a lot of things, including trying to maximize returns on SO reserves; one of the first things any competent organization does when they have a lot of money is to hire a really good treasurer who knows how to take care of it rather than letting the guy at the top have anything to do with it. Hard enough to be good at your job and an investing genius besides, in the best of circumstances. Impossible for it to end well when you’re an uneducated, semi-literate micro-managing sociopath.

Now you know why I have the attitude I do towards a lot in the Freezone. Money seems to be of more importance than anything. Many don’t understand the way the universe works is by exchange by dynamics and not on money. If it did work on money it would be natural to the formation of the universe.

I think I am starting to like this side of the fense better because I been seeing these type of posts that money is not king.

Hi MArty,
I really appreciate a lot of what you’re doing and have greatly enjoyed the excerpts from your new book… I wish you the best…

A precision, however: The Doctrine of Papal infallibility was not invoked until the 19th century, and then only in cases where the pope invoked it. I think it has been invoked two or three times since (here I am not sure), so Luther had nothing to do with that… I do take your point, but facts are facts…